


And Then It Hit Him

by saramcm



Category: Dragons: Riders of Berk (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-22
Updated: 2014-09-28
Packaged: 2018-02-18 10:54:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2345873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saramcm/pseuds/saramcm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Astrid accidentally hits Hiccup in the head with a volleyball. Their relationship snowballs from that moment on. </p><p>Hiccup vehemently does not want to go to the beach. Fishlegs drags him along, and because the universe hates him, Hiccup gets hit in the head with a volleyball.<br/>... Maybe the universe doesn't hate him all that much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Hiccup hates the beach. He hates the sand, he hates that he sunburns far too easily, he hates being wet, and he especially hates the stares he gets - it's always a spark of curiosity when they catch a glimpse of the odd looking prosthetic leg followed by a look of pity. It would be amusing that so many complete strangers share the exact same facial expression, if that expression didn't make him so uncomfortable.

He avoids it like the plague. There are many other places to visit during the summer, places with shadow or air conditioning, where he can read a good book and suck on a lollipop without both of them being covered in sand when a breeze picks up. And that's exactly what he tells Fishlegs, again and again and again, but the other boy seems determined on dragging Hiccup to the sandy hell. 

"Why don't you just go on your own?"

"That's just sad, Hiccup."

"That's your own problem, isn't it?"

"Come  _on_ , Hiccup! It won't kill you!"

"You don't know that. It could kill me. I could drown or be stung by a very poisonous fish."

Fishlegs throws Hiccup's swim trunks at his face.

* * *

Reading proves to be just as hard as Hiccup anticipated. Between the wind changing the pages and the noise around him distracting him too much to properly retain the words he's skimming his eyes through, he's not sure which is a better reason to drown Fishlegs. Finally, Hiccup gives up and puts the book back inside his backpack, deciding to just make a mental list of reasons why she should try to enjoy the day: The weather is nice - not nice for reading, but the cool wind counters the burning sun; his skin doesn't seem to be burned yet; Fishlegs is happy, and therefore less prone to start ranting about seagulls and fish - he's a nice guy, really, but his useless knowledge of animal trivia gets really annoying at times; there are no little children crying lou--

"Ow!"

For a the fraction of a second, Hiccup remembers telling Fishlegs that morning that he might die today. He rubs the back of his head, a sore spot throbbing while he glares at the offensive volleyball that bounced off his head and was now a few feet ahead of him.

"I'm so sorry! Oh, gods. Are you alright?" A feminine, frantic voice sounds and Hiccup just nods his head. Something blocks his view of the ball and it takes him two seconds too long to realize he was now staring at a girl's chest. His face is bright red when he looks up and meets a pair of bright blue, concerned eyes staring at the spot in Hiccup's head that he's been rubbing. 

"I'm-- It's nothing." Hiccup quickly drops his hand and awkwardly clears his throat. "That, uh. That's quite a throw, though."

"Not the best time to tell me that." She's frowning, and Hiccup's brain must have been affected by the hit because the only thing he can think about is how  _beautiful_ she is. He's pretty sure that's not even the right word, there must be a better way to describe her, but she's really close now and he can't really think of anything  _at all_. She's reaching for his head and gently rubbing her fingers over the spot he was rubbing before, searching for any signs that he was seriously hurt, and Hiccup's starting to wonder again if he's dead. "I get a little competitive and things get out of hand..."

"And land in my head, apparently." He says it with a smile and lifts his head against the girl's touches to look at her again. "It's fine, really. I've had worse." Hiccup vaguely gestures towards his left leg and she frowns softly, but that's it. That's the extent of her reaction. It's... Refreshing.

"It doesn't excuse me hitting you in the head with a volleyball." He watches her as she pauses, taking in a breath before speaking again. "Do you have a pen? I want you to have my number in case something happens. If you get any dizziness or headaches later, anything like that."

For a moment, Hiccup blinks. He just stares at her dumbly and blinks. "It's really not necessary."

"I'll feel better." She insists. Her eyes don't move from him and Hiccup finds himself searching his backpack for a pen and taking out the book he was reading as well. He opens the back cover and silently hands both items to her. He can feel Fishlegs staring at their interaction, the same way Hiccup is staring at her hand scribbling quickly on a corner of the white paper. She closes the book and hands it back, along with the pen. "Text me."

"In case of dizziness or headaches, got it."

"Not necessarily."

Hiccup is staring again. He's staring when she smiles, and when she winks, and also when she stands and goes to fetch the ball before running off. He looks down, fumbling hands opening the back cover of the book again and reading the girlish handwriting, the digits written beneath the name.  _Astrid_.

* * *

A year later, Hiccup doesn't put as much of a fight when his girlfriend asks him to go to the beach and cheer for her in the volleyball tournament.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "That volleyball one was so cute! omg could you possibly do more? Like. How they got together maybe?"  
> Well, tumblr anon, here you go~

"I'm gonna be taking sand out of my hair for weeks." Hiccup grumbles on the way home, standing in the much too crowded bus and politely declining it when someone offers to give him their seat. He hates wearing shorts.

" _That's_ what you're focusing on?" Fishlegs stumbles when the bus comes to a stop, almost knocking them both down. "Are you forgetting the important part of today?"

"She was just being nice." He says it with a roll of his eyes and moves to the back of the bus since his stop was soon.

"She winked at you."

It's hard to argue with that fact. Not only did this  _Astrid_ person tell Hiccup to text her, she smiled and winked when she did it. Now, he's not particularly well versed in anything regarding the rules of flirting and their nuances, but it seemed like that was exactly what she was doing. Flirting. With Hiccup. He shakes his head. "I think you're reading too much into it. I mean, did you  _see_ her?"

"I did, and I'm as surprised as you are."

"... Thanks."

"But maybe she has... I don't know. A type?"

"Yes, that makes perfect sense. She's blonde, beautiful and athletic and her type is one legged, pasty, freckled nerds who go to the beach to read Game of Thrones." Hiccup rolls his eyes,  _again_ , and he's sure someone is staring at him judgmentally. He can feel it. "It's impossible, Fishlegs. The world doesn't work like that."

"Just text her. You should know then."

* * *

"Are we gonna talk about the fact that you hit on a disabled dude today?"

"Can you not say it like that, Ruff?" Astrid mutters, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel and staring at the light while she waits for it to turn green. _  
_

"Yeah, he was kinda cute, actually." Heather's head is suddenly right between hers and Ruff's as she stretches from the backseat to see Astrid's reaction. It's not that thrilling, as Astrid simply sighs and shrugs.

"It doesn't really matter, does it? He didn't seem all that interested. I think he was upset about the ball thing and probably hates me."

"Maybe you hit him hard enough that he won't remember what happened. When he sees your number in his book he'll text you, ask you who the hell you are and you can come up with something else." Ruffnut _knows_ that she's rambling nonsense, because she's doing it just to annoy Astrid. The glare she receives tells her it working.

"I think you just caught him by surprise." Heather says after a moment.

"I hit him with a ball, of course I caught him by surprise!"

"No, I mean, he wasn't expecting you to flirt. That's why he got all awkward and weird." Heather continues, shrugging and moving back to her seat when she sees the light turn green. "We'll just have to wait and see what he does now."

* * *

_Just text her_. That sounded simple enough when Fishlegs said it. It's been three hours since he said it and Hiccup's still helplessly staring at her name in his book. He decides he likes her name, but that obviously gets him nowhere and he gets frustrated with himself.

He picks up his phone from his desk and throws himself on his bed, debating on what he should say. Hiccup's not dizzy, his head doesn't hurt - only when he rubs his fingers over the bump that formed as an aftermath of the hit - so he really isn't sure what he should say to her. Astrid did tell him to text her regardless of any possible serious injury, but...

Groaning, Hiccup rolls over and takes in a deep breath.

> 'Hello. This is Hiccup, the guy you hit with a volleyball.'

No, that's too accusing. He deletes it and tries again.

> 'Hello. This is Hiccup, from the beach. I just thought it would be fair to inform you that my head is fine. I appreciate your concern.'

Definitely not. Too formal, slightly creepy. Sighing, he deletes and tries once again.

> 'Hey, this is Hiccup, the guy from the beach. Just letting you know that everything's fine, so your conscious should be squeaky clean. Goodnight :)'

Hiccup stares at the text for a very long time. He reads it and tweaks it, then decides against every change he makes. He ponders sending it to Fishlegs for advice on whether or not he should send it, but then decides he doesn't really trust Fishlegs' knowledge when it came to this sort of thing. After what can only be described as 'way too long to decide whether or not one should send a damn text', Hiccup types in the number she wrote on his book and hits send.

He's not expecting a reply, and yet he can't stop staring at his phone. Against all odds, he gets a text three minutes later.

> 'Hi! I'm so glad to hear from you, I was starting to wonder if you were in the emergency room... Or if you were terribly angry at me.'

Dear god, she replied. Hiccup didn't plan for that, he just assumed he'd eventually fall asleep staring at his phone and wake up the next day feeling disappointed and with his brain yelling 'I told you so' at him. But no. Astrid, wherever she is, took the time to reply to his text. And she thinks he's angry at her? That's just insane!

> 'You apologized and gave me your number because you were worried. I couldn't be angry at you.'

* * *

Well, that invalidates Ruff's theory that he might have lost parts of his memory. Astrid gets more than a little giddy at the last response from him, which only adds to the relief that Hiccup actually did text her in the first place. Couldn't be angry at her. She likes the sound of that.

> 'That enables me to ask you if you'd like to go watch a movie with me tomorrow.'

Astrid Hofferson has never been known for hesitating on getting what she wants. Right now, what she wants is to know the cute guy from the beach a little better. She wants to know his favorite Game of Thrones character and which death upset him the most. She wants to know what kind of movie he likes and if he drinks soda while watching it. She also maybe, kind of, sort of wants to know if he's a good kisser and what he tastes like, but she figures that depends on a lot of things.

> 'I don't see how I could say no to that. What time do you wanna meet?'

_Yes._

* * *

They watch a really bad horror movie and laugh the whole time while drinking soda and eating popcorn. Hiccup is way ahead of her on Game of Thrones, so they decide not to discuss it at all for fear he might accidentally spoil something for her. Astrid tells him she plays volleyball for fun but is on a soccer team. Hiccup tells her he's actually really good at chess and has an impressive collection of Pokemon cards; he's surprised when Astrid shows interest in both of them. Time sort of flies, and only when a street lamp flickers above them do they seem to realize how late it is. Despite her initial protest, he insists on walking her home.

Hiccup's a fantastic kisser. He tastes like the strawberry ice cream they bought on the way home.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is appreciated if you'd like to leave some.  
> Constructive criticism is always good! Just be nice~  
> Thank you for reading :)


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